The Utah Department of Corrections, through Adult Probation and Parole, operates five residential community correctional centers in Utah for offenders who are on probation or who have recently paroled from prison.

These "halfway" houses are designed to help offenders who may not have a place to go when they leave prison, need additional treatment as they transition back into the community or are struggling and at risk of returning to jail or prison.

There is one center in Northern Utah (Ogden), one center in West Valley City and three centers in Salt Lake City. The centers range in size from 60 beds to 300 beds and some offer customized services for their residents.

Of the five facilities, two — Orange Street and Atherton Community Treatment Center — are designated for women.

The Fortitude Treatment Center is an innovative approach to reducing the offender recidivism rate and trying to stop the revolving prison door. It opened in 2012 and has capacity for 306 males.

The facility allows struggling offenders to remain in the community under parole supervision rather than return to prison. When a parolee violates certain conditions of his parole agreement, Adult Probation and Parole agents may recommend the parolee be placed in this program.

In addition, Fortitude serves as a transition facility for offenders who need time to stabilize in the community as they leave prison.

In the facility, the offender is subject to tighter restrictions and intensive treatment programs aimed at addressing underlying issues causing him to struggle. While at Fortitude, a parolee can check out to attend schooling, go to work or to search for work and see family.The offender is able to maintain a job, ties to family and other community connections rather than being uprooted and returned to prison.

Agents actively monitor an offender to ensure he is working or looking for work. When not at work or searching for a job, parolees remain in the facility, which is staffed by Correctional officers and those parole officers who have offices on-site.

The Orange Street Women's Center houses 60 women who are being paroled and are in a transitional phase of community re-entry. The center's staff are trained in gender-responsive issues and strength-based interactions.The program includes clinical treatment, cognitive/behavioral/psycho-educational classes, community involvement and pro-social activities. By the end of their four-month to six-month stay at Orange Street, the women will have a living-wage job, a positive community support system and a realistic foundational living plan.

The Atherton Community Treatment Center, housed in the former Fremont Community Correctional Center, is one of two facilities devoted to women. It has 60 beds and was officially opened as a women's facility on May 14, 2015.

The center is named after a true champion in the criminal justice community — Judge Judith Atherton. Judge Atherton, who retired from the bench in 2013 after a stellar legal career, has long been a vocal advocate for more community resources to meet the needs of offenders — particularly women — with substance abuse and mental health issues.

The Atherton center, which began accepting clients on April 17, 2015, is for women who have violated their probation or parole conditions and are at risk of being returned to jail or prison.

The women will be referred to the program by a probation or parole agent. Once in the program they'll work through a structured program that ranges in length from 7 days to 120 days, depending on their individual needs.

The program is part of the Department's Female Offender Success Initiative, which is based on the philosophy that programs and strategies used with female offenders should be gender responsive.

In part, that means addressing underlying trauma that may be at the root of poor choices; recognizing the importance of relationships in a woman's life; and using rehabilitation strategies tailored to a woman's needs. The tool used to determine those needs is the Women's Risk Needs Assessment, developed by the University of Cincinnati.

The Bonneville Community Correctional Center opened in the 1980s and has capacity for 74 male parolees. Its staff works to stabilize and transition parolees, including sex offenders and mentally ill offenders, to the community. In 2015, it began offering mentally ill offenders the BRIDGES course through the National Alliance for Mental Illness.

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